The Central Government has removed the Special Additional Excise Duty (SAED), i.e. windfall tax, imposed on Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF), Petrol and Diesel. Now refining companies exporting petrol and diesel will not have to pay any windfall tax.
Besides, the government has also removed the windfall tax imposed on crude products. Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented a notification in the Lok Sabha on Monday, in which this information was given.
The government had also reduced the windfall tax on crude oil in August.
Three months ago, the government had reduced the windfall tax on export of domestically produced crude oil. In its regular review, the government had reduced the windfall tax from Rs 2,100 per metric tonne to Rs 1,850 per metric tonne. This change came into effect from August 31. The government reviews windfall tax every 15 days.
Earlier on August 16, the government had reduced the windfall tax by 54.34% from Rs 4,600 per metric tonne to Rs 2,100 per metric tonne. Accordingly, the government had reduced the windfall tax by 59.78% twice in the month of August. On the other hand, the government had decided to keep the export duty on diesel, petrol and Aviation Turbine Fuel (ATF) i.e. the fuel used in aircraft at zero.
This means that the discount being given to domestic refiners on export of diesel, petrol and ATF is going to remain intact in future also. This will continue to benefit those domestic companies which run refineries and sell refined products like diesel, petrol and ATF in markets outside the country.
When did the government impose windfall tax?
Windfall tax is also revised with fluctuations in Brent crude prices. The central government had imposed windfall tax for the first time on July 1, 2022. At present, there are many countries which collect tax on the huge earnings of energy companies.
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